


She-Ra254: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Game

by VanillAbby



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Internalized Homophobia, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Seahawk and Mermista are bi, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting, The main series is a video game, probably?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 04:10:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20333845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanillAbby/pseuds/VanillAbby
Summary: Catra and Adora broke up with each other a few months ago and have been utterly miserable since. But when fate aligns and their new friends get them both hooked on the same video game, can they find true happiness again?





	She-Ra254: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Game

Catra and Adora had broken up not long after Bow and Glimmer met them. And for the first few weeks afterwards, Adora seemed fine. She'd been acing her classes with ease, keeping her part of the dorm immaculately clean and coming out to experience the world with the two. She'd grown up in a strict Christian foster home and had never experienced a lot things Bow and Glimmer took for granted. Bow nearly cried when he had learned that they weren't allowed to celebrate Halloween.  
But soon after her first month of college and being the life of the party, her denial broke. She had had a fight with Catra where it finally sank in that they were done forever. Her tidy room had turned into a trash heap, her grades had slipped from the top of the class to barely passing and she rarely went outside. When her dorm mates forced her to go be social, she could only hold it together for a bit before she melted into a depressed mess.  
This time, they had figured that putting some liquor into the lightweight would help her loosen up. Instead, Glimmer watched in horror as Adora woozily wobbled up to her, tears streaming down her face, holding a cactus.

"'S jus' like her Glimmer!" She said, her voice slurred with intoxication, "it's prickly and good at surviving, but it's so pretty! You gotta get past the spikes, Glimmer!"  
The only time Glimmer and Catra had ever talked, she had called her a fat privileged whore. Prickly was a term for that, she supposed.

Bow sidled up and whisper-shouted at her. Had Adora been paying attention, she might have seen her best friends loudly conspiring, but she was too busy sitting on the back of the couch rubbing a cactus on her face.

"What did you give her? I thought we agreed on making sure she didn't have more than a drink or two!"

"This is two drinks, Bow! This is two fucking drinks!" Unbeknownst to either of them, Adora hadn't had the energy to get out of bed and eat today, leaving her alcohol tolerance even worse than usual.

"Should we get her out of here?"

"Probably should before she proposes to that cact-" she turned to look at Adora, only to find the cactus in her place. She frantically looked around for the jock only to find her across Perfuma's apartment staggering around in a group of people, loudly mumbling at them.

"How does she do that? Is that what working out lets you do?"

The two pushed their way through the crowd of happy party goers to find their drunk friend sitting on Seahawk's lap, petting Mermista's face. Oh no.

"Your love is... so beautiful. You're so perfect and pretty. No one to break your heart. You've never crushed anyone's soul by going to college. You never hurt your best friend since before kindergarten." Adora slipped down so she was lying on both of their laps not unlike a large dog. Seahawk patted her legs awkwardly. Bow and Mermista made eye contact and she gave him the death glare to end all death glares.

"Yeah, collect your friend before she gets snot on me," she hissed at him.

"Catra would have loved this party," Adora said, wiping her face on Mermista's sweater, before pausing to think, "no she would have hated it. But she would have come for meeeeeee."

"Okay, Adora, time to go, honey," Bow said, putting his babysitting skills to use.

"Go 'way, Bow! I need to warn Mermista! Mermista! Love isn't real!"

Glimmer put her surprisingly buff arms around Adora and yanked her up to standing.

"Time to cool off," Glimmer said, pulling the limp rag doll like form of Adora into an adjoining room.

"I am so sorry," Bow said, wringing his hands.

"You better be," Mermista growled.

~~~~

"Catra! Catra! Catra!" Catra chanted as she wobbled around the bar.

Scorpia dashed right behind her, guiding her out of the way the table she was about to crash into. "Hey, um, quick favor: can you put the darts away?"

"Fuck you," she said, hopping up on a table. "I'm going to get a bullseye from all the way over here and no one can stop me."

Catra had a talent for hitting rock bottom and then digging deeper to even lower rock bottoms. Scorpia had assumed rock bottom was when Catra didn't leave her room for a few days and had to go to the hospital for dehydration, but it wasn't. She had assumed the real rock bottom was when Catra had driven for like a day straight to go yell at Adora in person and almost went to jail. Now she was at the new rock bottom of having spent at least one whole paycheck (small as her pay was) on beer and endangering the eyes of every person in this shithole bar with darts.

"This shot goes out to me for being an amazing lesbian! That's right! I'm fucking gay! And if anyone has a problem with it, I'm going to beat the shit out of you!" she pointed her mug at Scorpia, causing her booze to slosh on the floor. "Cheer me on! Catra! Catra! Catra!"

Scorpia nervously pumped her arm and quietly cheered, "Catra, Catra, Catra."

Earlier in the night, as a joke, Lonnie had put a yearbook photo of Adora on the dart board. And Catra aimed for right between her stupid perfect beautiful eyes.

For being so drunk she wouldn't remember this in the morning, it was a spectacular shot. From across the bar she managed to hit gorgeous Adora's stupid photo in the neck. Scorpia blinked.

"Woah, that was actually really good, Wildcat! I knew you were good at sports but this? Wow. That was impressive. You gonna get off the table now?"

"I get three shots!" she said, holding the other two darts aloft. "This one is for Scorpia for being the second coolest fag in the state of Minnesota! She's big and tough and has great eyebrows but is too nice to be cooler than me!"

Scorpia blushed, but her goofy grin turned into a frown quickly as she saw Catra's shot go wide and slam into the wall next to the dart board. "Maybe you should play from a normal distance? Just, you know, climb down from the table and play like everyone else?"

"Fuck you, you big... big thing! I'm better than everyone else! I'm better than you, I'm better than Lonnie and I'm better than Kyle and I'm better than that fucking sexy coward!" She glared daggers at the smiling pock marked photo of Adora. How dare she be happy? How dare she get to live a happy life while Catra was stuck in this shit hole? "This shot goes out to all the bitches in the world who want to talk shit about yours truly! Fuck you to Octavia in the seventh grade for saying she had to move seats because she wouldn't sit next to a dyke! Fuck you to Ms. Weaver for the years of getting told I wouldn't be shit! And a big final fuck you to Adora for holding me back all these years! Telling me she'd be there to help but leaving, ignoring everything Weaver did to me, always kicking my ass at sports and... and... and," she paused to wipe away some tears in the corners of her eyes, "and for being too popular to kiss her own girlfriend at prom! But look at me now! I'm the best dart player in White Pine Lake!"

She threw the third dart, which went worse than Scorpia had feared. Her arm went limp at the wrong moment causing the sharp dart to fly the exact wrong direction and slam into the back of Kyle's neck. He let out a high pitched scream and flailed about, knocking over a table a group of rowdy bikers were sitting at. As they stood up angrily, Catra finished the beer she had in her hand and shouted, "I fucking did that! Me! Catra!" before taking a step forward, passing out, falling off the table and getting caught by Scorpia before she broke her skull on the sticky floor.

~~~~

"Glimmer," Adora said, rolling her r like she'd never said her name before, "she was so great, Glimmer. She deserves better than a tall blond bitch like me. I'm the worst!"  
Oh great, she was crying again.

"I didn't even kiss Catra at prom!" At this point it didn't even sound like she was saying her ex's name. It sounded more like Ca-uh. "I didn't want Ms. Weaver to know I was gay so I didn't kiss her even after she dipped me and Weaver wasn't even there and- and- and-" Adora collapsed, bawling her eyes out in a heap on the floor.

Glimmer pat her on the top of the head and started pacing. Her annoyed pacing was stopped when she was startled by a short girl with huge unkempt pig tails appearing next to her.

"Hey! Hiding here too?"

"Aah!" Glimmer screamed, losing any dignity she had left this night. Adora hadn't noticed.

"I didn't scream when you barged into my room unannounced. Jeez."

"You fucking surprised me! I didn't even know Perfuma had a roommate!"

"Oh, well, hey! I'm Entrapta Price! I'm a comp sci major!"

Glimmer looked both ways. This was a weird introduction. "I'm Glimmer Moon and I'm an art major. That's Adora Weaver; she's undeclared."

"I don't have any drive in life without her," the quivering heap of Adora sobbed.

"Is your friend crying on my office floor?"

"She's going through a really bad breakup," Glimmer said sheepishly, as Adora pet the rough carpet like it would yell at her if she didn't.

"That's out of my scope of expertise!" Entrapta announced cheerfully, hopping back into her swivel chair and spinning to her computer.

"Do you mind if we stay here for a bit? She needs a place to calm down."

"Mi Casa Es Su Casa!" Entrapta cracked open what was either her fifth Red Bull of the night or a sign that she didn't throw away her energy drinks ever.

Bow burst in through the door, grimacing. "Glimmer? I need to talk to-" he paused as his eyes adjusted to the darker room, "Wait is that Entrapta?"

"Hi, Bow!" she shouted, not looking up. Adora had crawled across the carpet to her computer and was watching her code with intense interest.

"You two know each other? Since when?" Glimmer asked, getting a little jealous. Why didn't she know Entrapta then? She and Bow did everything together.

"I told you about her! She teaches a class I take!" Oh, phew, it was just the girl he had described as "that scary teacher lady with the loud voice". Glimmer was certainly agreeing with the loud voice part.

"Well, I TA, but the professor might as well be dead for all the help he gives."

Adora had scrabbled up to a crouch and was poking random keys on Entrapta's large glowing keyboard.

"Bow! Important message from the outside world?"

"Right, yes! Mermista needs us to both apologize to her or she's going to ban us from like all of the Gay Student Union events."

"Wait, even the-"

"Even the Halloween party!"

"That bitch!" Glimmer growled, storming out of the room.

"Hey, Entrapta? Can you make sure Adora stays put while I go stop Glim from punching out Mermista?"

"No prob! I've been looking for something to study tonight!"

Bow scampered out of the room leading the two alone. Entrapta spun her chair to face Adora, accidentally knocking her over in the process. "So, what seems to be the problem?"

"I'm a terrible person. I said I'd always be there to protect her but now I'm here and she's there and she doesn't have anyone and I'm getting drunk and partying and she might not even have a roof over her head."

"Hm, yeah, my basic psychology knowledge can't help you there. Talk to a real therapist," Entrapta callously shrugged. "Want to play video games?"

Adora's face changed from despondent to smiley. "Oh man, sounds great."

~~~~~

When Catra came to, the first thing she noticed was how much everything hurt. The second thing she noticed was that it was the morning and she was on Scorpia's couch. Scorpia was across the room, eating an omelette. People who got up early enough to cook breakfast always pissed her off. Stupid Adora and her stupid early morning practices.

"Oh, hey! You're awake! Got worried you'd sleep all day!" Scorpia boomed. Catra had no idea if Scorpia was being louder than normal or if her hangover was amplifying everything.

"Jesus Christ, quiet down!"

"Op, sorry," Scorpia said, switching to a stage whisper that still hit her ears like a punch to the gut, "want an omelette?"

Catra's stomach made a bad noise. "I'll pass. Did we have fun last night at least?"

"Well, um, that's another bar you're banned from."

Catra blanched. She knew this wouldn't be a fun conversation.

"You spent your whole paycheck last night."

"What!" Catra's mismatched eyes popped open before slamming shut from the horribly bright sun, "How? Why didn't you stop me?"

"We tried, Wildcat, but you bought a pitcher and dumped it on Lonnie when she called you out."

Catra pushed on her eye, so the pain would keep her from crying.

"Oh, jeez, it'll be fine! It just means you'll have to stay with me a bit longer! And have more pal time with your best friend!"

"You aren't- ugh. Why do you even bother spending so much on me? You know my life is just going to keep falling apart. That's what I do. I'm Catra and I fail."

"Hey, it's this or have my dad buy another sports car he doesn't use. And I think you know you're a better investment than that."

Catra slid off the couch onto the cold floor, "at least the sports car doesn't get you kicked out of bars."

Scorpia frowned. Depressed self-loathing Catra was her least favorite Catra. She listened even less than blackout drunk Catra. But it was still cute and fun (if prickly) Catra under it all, so it was worth it. "Hey, you don't work today, right? Want to stay sober and do something around the house? I'll order pizza."

"What the fuck is there that I won't ruin?"

"We could hang out! Watch a movie together or something," she said, moving over to sit on the couch next to Catra

"Yeah, fine, whatever. Maybe looking at your dumb face will get my mind off of how useless I am. Can't even keep a full time job."

Scorpia blushed. Catra mentioned her face! And that was almost a compliment, even if she dragged herself through the mud to get to it. Scorpia beamed as she turned on the smart tv they had. She had messed it up a bit ago so it always went to settings instead of just playing television like she wanted. So she was stuck looking at the date and time settings until she could remember how to fix it. The date and time...

"Wait, Catra, today's the 10th?"

"Why are you asking me? Like I ever know what day it is."

"Oh, jeez, my dad is having a thing today at the factory. He wanted me to be there!"

Catra frowned at the tv. Of course. Of course Scorpia would do that. Start making her feel better and then bail. Why did she think she'd be any different? If even Adora left, why wouldn't-

Scorpia put a big hand on Catra's shoulder. "Hey, no need to cry! I'll be back late tonight and we can watch something then!"

"I'm not crying, idiot," said Catra, scraping the back of her neck with her nails so that the pain would stop the rest of the tears from falling.

"Here, how about I give you my switch? Playing some Kirby always gets my mind off of whatever's bugging me."

Catra nuzzled into her leg ("Catra! Physical contact!" Scorpia's thoughts screamed) and let out a long breath. "Yeah, I guess a video game would work. Just none of your kiddy crap."

Scorpia frowned. Literally every video game she owned was kiddy crap to her friend. Why did she have to enjoy bright colors so much? Why couldn't she like more violent stuff like Entrapta back home? Wait, Entrapta!

"Hang on, Wildcat. I know like *the* video game expert back home. I'm going to message her and she'll give me a game you'll absolutely love."

Catra grimaced. She never liked hearing about Scorpia's friends back in Vermont. They all sounded rich and pretty and way more talented than she was. She never understood why Scorpia would willingly subject herself to the overflowing cistern that was White Pine Lake when her family owned a mansion in like perfect-town, Vermont or whatever it was called.

"Yeah, sure. Go ask your nerd friend."

Scorpia smiled and whipped out her phone.

NotScorpia - 11:39 am  
Hey  
Hey  
Hey  
Hey

TrapRemix - 11:56 am  
Mario Kart today?

NotScorpia - 11:57 am  
No :ccccc

TrapRemix - 11:57 am  
Break your computer again?

NotScorpia - 11:57 am  
That was only twice!  
Well okay the shift key goes off on its own sometimes  
But that's because I spilled grape soda on the keyboard  
And then tried to clean it with water

TrapRemix - 11:59 am  
You are fascinatingly terrible with machines.  
Why'd you send me four heys?

NotScorpia - 11:59 am  
Oh!  
You know the girl staying with me?

TrapRemix - 12:00 pm  
The one you want to engage in intercourse with?

NotScorpia - 12:00 pm  
She's my friend first  
Also I do kinda love her  
But like that's separate?  
From the problem I mean  
She is really pretty though  
She has mismatched eyes!  
You could get lost in them for hours  
And her hair  
It's so soft  
And there's so much of it

TrapRemix - 12:03 pm  
I'm going to stop you there before I puke.  
I'm multitasking right now because I'm busy.  
What's up with heterochromia girl?

NotScorpia - 12:04 pm  
Oh! Right!  
She's gay not hetero btw  
But she's like  
Really sad  
And I need a video game to put in front of her in front of while I go do stuff  
Ideally one that's free  
Because she hates spending my money

TrapRemix - 12:06 pm  
Your dad's money.

NotScorpia - 12:06 pm  
And it has to be a game that my computer can run

TrapRemix - 12:06 pm  
What games does she like?

NotScorpia - 12:07 pm  
Well she hates Mario kart and Kirby  
She likes violence  
Hates losing so nothing where you fight other people  
Probably something easy  
Nothing with a huge story  
Something she can play a bunch on days when I'm gone so she doesn't self destruct  
And she doesn't like sappy things  
Oh and she says she doesn't get motion sick but she does so nothing first person  
Nothing emotional  
Nothing that reminds her of her ex  
Absolutely nothing about relationships  
Think that's it?

TrapRemix - 12:09 pm  
You're sure this is the right choice of mate?

NotScorpia - 12:09 pm  
Why does everyone ask that?  
She's great!  
We had to run from the cops last night which was not fun  
But the parts before that were amazing  
She said I was the second best lesbian in the state!

TrapRemix - 12:10 pm  
Is everyone this desperate in relationships or just you?

NotScorpia - 12:12 pm  
It's not desperate

TrapRemix - 12:12 pm  
Well, while you were taking forever to respond to that  
I figured out a game.  
Does she like MMORPGs?

NotScorpia - 12:13 pm  
Yep  
Probably  
Doesn't everyone  
What's an MMORPG?

TrapRemix - 12:13 pm  
It's a big game that'll keep her busy for a while.  
I have an account I don't use anymore.  
And I'm already giving a bunch of free shit in it to a girl over here.  
She's nice, by the way.  
You'd like her.  
Also gay.  
Single.  
Probably not going to get you chased by cops.  
And my referral code will give you like 60 free days.  
Game's called Kingdoms of Etheria.  
I played a Mechanist.  
People say the Horde Soldier is an easy mode class so tell her to pick that.  
Plus it'll even run on the compost heap that is your computer.  
I'm going to build you a new one from scratch so help me god.  
Attached file: guidetogettingfreestuffforyourgf.txt  
Anyway, got to go  
Labs on fire  
Bye~~~

NotScorpia - 12:15 pm  
Wait like actual fire?  
Hello?  
Entrapta?  
Entrapta?  
Hey, Entrapta?

~~~~~

Adora had been an utter nightmare to get home. After they'd pulled her away from whatever video game magic Entrapta had put her under, she had reacted like a cat being dragged to a bathtub. She tried to grab every passerby and either warn them either of the fragility of love, inform them of how Catra was so much better than them or just talk about how awful she was. But they finally got home, tucked her in bed, turned on her white noise machine and she was out like a light. And pretty soon thereafter, Bow and Glimmer passed out in their own rooms.

When Glimmer woke up, she was surprised to find Adora's room as they had left it last night. The door was still slightly ajar and the telltale crackling of the white noise machine still going.

Glimmer rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned. Bow, who was reading at their kitchen table called out, "morning, Glim!"

"Did... did I wake up before 10 today? Is the apocalypse happening? Are pigs flying?"

"No, it's past noon. Your lazy teen cred is intact."

"Did Adora pass out after her morning jog then?"

"She... she didn't go on her jog."

Glimmer's mouth dropped. The one thing that had remained constant the entire time she knew Adora from her highest highs to her lowest lows was that she got up early and took a jog. Glimmer had never seen it happen, mind you, she carefully curated all her classes so that there wasn't a single one in the morning, but from what she had heard, it was all the time.

"Okay, DEFCON 1, we gotta fix her," she said, flopping down next to Bow and drinking from his coffee, "blegh, too much cream."  
Bow swiped the mug from her and held it at arms length in the other direction. "I like cream in *my* coffee."

"It's gross!"

"Focus, Glim."

"Right. This has to stop. She's getting worse. We need to get her back to chipper."

"We should get her to a therapist, right? That's the adult thing to do."

They both shared a look and they remembered the "Adora go to the doctor; your finger shouldn't be swelling like that" argument that took two weeks before she finally relented.  
"Okay, maybe we need a less adult but shorter term plan."

"Oh, I bet I could get Perfuma to hook us with some weed!"

"Glim. Glim, I love you, but think of why we're having this conversation. No more substances. Plus I heard her call it the devil's grass once. Like unironically."

She shouldn't have laughed. She did. Adora could be such a grandma sometimes. It was one of the many many *many* cute things about her. And she was going to get her cute smile back.

"Okay, let's think," Glimmer said, her face turning serious, "when was the last time you saw her happy?"

"I guess last night? Like when she was with Entrapta."

"That's it! We'll get a video game that she can play to keep her mind off of stuff!"

"You sure? She can get a little obsessive."

"It'll be fine! Give me Entrapta's contact info. I'll ask her what game to get."

Bitchqueen69 - 12:55 pm  
hey is this entrapta  
its glimmer  
from last night

TrapRemix - 12:56 pm  
Yep! Hi!  
Mario Kart today?  
Oops sorry meant to send that to someone else  
What's up?

Bitchqueen69 - 12:57 pm  
need video game advice  
adora had fun w u  
need her to have more fun  
what game should I get

TrapRemix - 12:57 pm  
Are you by any chance related to Micah Moon of the Micah Moon Memorial Foundation Research Grant for Young Geniuses?

Bitchqueen69 - 12:58 pm  
ya hes my dad  
video games tho

TrapRemix - 12:59 pm  
If I help you can you put in a good word for my projects?

Bitchqueen69 - 1:00 pm  
ughhhhhhhhhh  
sure  
if you insist  
but my mom doesnt exactly listen to me  
so you should ask someone else

TrapRemix - 1:00 pm  
But I know you

Bitchqueen69 - 1:01 pm  
video games pls

TrapRemix - 1:01 pm  
On it!  
Do you have any consoles?

Bitchqueen69 - 1:01 pm  
only Adora's old laptop

TrapRemix - 1:02 pm  
How old?

Bitchqueen69 - 1:02 pm  
miracle its still alive old

TrapRemix - 1:02 pm  
Ah.  
What kind of games does she like?

Bitchqueen69 - 1:03 pm  
um  
dont know  
she never played any growing up  
but she likes sports  
and being the hero  
and she's really smart  
and talented  
but nothing with romance  
or anything that reminds her of her ex  
so like nothing with an attractive gay bitch  
oh and it has to be something she can get really deep into

TrapRemix - 1:06 pm  
Hmm...  
Give me a bit to think on it.  
I'm in my lab anyway so I should probably make sure chemicals don't catch on fire.

Bitchqueen69 - 1:06 pm  
should u really be messaging me rn

TrapRemix - 1:06 pm  
Figured out what game would work!  
It's an old MMO that I stopped playing.  
It's called Kingdoms of Etheria  
And the plots pretty much an after thought, but if you play as a chosen one, you can really get that hero feel.  
I played as a mechanist.  
I can give her some free stuff  
And a 60 day free trial  
Give me a second to write up a little how to for you

Bitchqueen69 - 1:08 pm  
take your time

TrapRemix - 1:12 pm  
Okay! Got it  
Attached file: guidetogettingfreestuffforyourgf.txt

Bitchqueen69 - 1:12 pm  
woah shes not my gf

TrapRemix - 1:13 pm  
Did I misread the social cues?  
That happens some times.  
I just saw the way you looked at her

Bitchqueen69 - 1:14 pm  
its complicated

TrapRemix - 1:14 pm  
Want to tell me?

Bitchqueen69 - 1:14 pm  
no  
no way

TrapRemix - 1:15 pm  
Okay I gotta go.  
My lab is on fire right now  
Tell your mom to fund me  
Bye~~~

Bitchqueen69 - 1:15 pm  
wait actual fire  
do you need help  
entrapta?

**Author's Note:**

> I promise that the actual main plot of the fic will happen next time! Hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
